Dinos lose region opener to Delta

Going into the region opener with Delta, the Dinos knew it would be one of their toughest games yet. Delta is ranked in the top 5 in class 3A.

The Dinos were hoping to to pull off an upset or at least keep it close. The first half they did just that going into the locker room down 14-7.

Delta took control in the second half and the game ended 41-7 as Carbon took their first loss of the season.

Delta opened with a tough down on their first two drives down the field. The first quarter score was 14-0. But the Dinos had possession as the quarter ended and they continued their drive and were able to find the end zone with 8:45 left in the half. They scored on a pass from Dakota Cisneros to Nick Haycock. Tanner Gagnon hit the extra point.

The Dino defense was able to stop the Rabbits from scoring the rest of the half with a couple of great stops on Delta drives.

Carbon looked like they had found the key to beat the Rabbits as the two teams headed to the locker room with the Dinos only down a touchdown.

The second half was all Delta. The Rabbits put two scores on the board in the third quarter to make it 28-7. They then put it out of reach with two more touchdowns in the fourth. The Dinos blocked one of the point after kicks. Turnovers on interceptions hurt Carbon in the second half of play.

"I give Delta credit. They are a good disciplined team that came out ready to play," remarked coach Jeff Blanc. "But the score is not indicative of the game. It should have been more like 21-7. I made a couple of bad calls and we lost some focus as a team in the second half. But all-in all we played a good first half and about half of the third quarter before we really ran into trouble."

Blanc reminded his team in the locker room after the game that they still have four games left and there were some good things that showed on the field. There are also some things they need to work on as well. Blanc also felt they had lost a bit of their momentum having the bye week when they did.

"Don't get me wrong, I am not making excuses, but I will never take another bye week again. Taking time off was not good for us. Bottom line is that we cannot afford to turn the ball over and expect to win. We also didn't capitalize on the turnovers we forced either," he said.

Nick Haycock finished with another good performance with four receptions for 54 yards and one touchdown catch. Dillon Manzanares stood out on the defensive side with 13 tackles and a sack. Blanc praised his ability to be where he needed to be and said he did a tremendous job against a very good team. Kris Murdock had a big block on an extra point kick late in the game for Carbon.

The Dinos head to North Sanpete for their second region contest this Friday with game time set for 7 p.m.